Share of renewables in the EU rose further to 16% in 2014

On 10 February 2016, EUROSTAT announced that in 2014, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy reached 16.0% in the European Union (EU), almost double than that of 2004 (8.5%), the first year for which the data is available.

Share of renewable sources in specific Member States

With more than half (52.6%) of energy from renewable sources in its gross final energy consumption, Sweden had by far the highest share in 2014, ahead of Latvia and Finland (both 38.7%), Austria (33.1%) and Denmark (29.2%). At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest proportions of renewables were registered in Luxembourg (4.5%), Malta (4.7%), the Netherlands (5.5%) and the United Kingdom (7.0%).

Member States and their 2020 targets

Each EU Memeber States (MS) has its own Europe 2020 target. The national targets take into account the MS' different starting points, renewable energy potential and economic performance. Among the 28 EU MS, a third have already reached the level required to meet their national 2020 targets: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Finland and Sweden. Moreover, Denmark and Austria are less than 1 percentage point from their 2020 targets. At the opposite end of the scale, France (8.7 percentage points from reaching its national 2020 objective), the Netherlands (8.5 pp), the United Kingdom (8.0 pp) and Ireland (7.4 pp) are the furthest away from their targets.

Background

The share of renewables in gross final consumption of energy is one of the headline indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy. The target to be reached by 2020 for the EU is a share of 20% energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy. However, renewables will continue to play a key role in helping the EU meet its energy needs beyond 2020. For this reason, Member States have already agreed on a new EU renewable energy target of at least 27% by 2030.